Router Tutorial

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Templates aid woodworkers to reproduce a shape with exact precision and smooth edges quickly and easily. Another option if you only need to rout a long straight line or grove like for a deep set neck tendon, is to setup 1 or 2 rails for the router, or the router bit to ride along.

  - Alignment;

Line up your template where u want it, for everything but the control cavity this would mean lining up with the center line of the guitar. You'll notice I haven't cut out the horns section of this guitar so that the template and router have something to rest on, and so I can line up the center lines of the template and the guitar in 2 places. Trace the inside edge with a pencil or fine point marker. 

 - Pre drilling;

Now measure slightly short of the desired rout depth on a drill bit with a pencil, piece of tape, or a drill stop. Keeping inside the line you just drew, drill as many holes as u can to the depth you want, but be sure NOT to drill to deep especially not in the neck pocket. Then put some double sided tape on the template, get it lined back up with your centerline and press it onto the guitar body firmly and precisely. Here I've also marked where I'll be cutting away the wood AFTER i'm done routing the pocket.

 - Setting up the bit & routing;

Your router bit has to stick out of the router the proper amount to contact the template, to far and the bearing will hit the wood and you won't be able to move the router, not far enough and the bearing won't contact the template and you'll rout right thru it the wood and the template. I'm using a 1/2" diameter bit with a 1/2" cutting depth, and a 3/16" bearing. So the bit will have to stick out of the router base by a total of 11/16" , but I'll only be routing 1/2" of wood on the first pass. Since I predrilled the section this isn't a problem, but normally I wouldn't set my router bit depth to more then 1/4" per pass.

For a shallow rout, you'll have to shop around for a very small bit like the second one pictured (link) to the left, or read the "Bushing & straight cutter bit" section which is next.

 - Second & last pass; 

After each pass adjust the depth on the router so that the router bit will stick out and additional 1/4" - 3/8" depending on the wood. I prefer using 2 bearings on the shank so that as I adjust the bit deeper into the wood, the bearings will still run along the template as well as wood that I have routed  in previous passes. 

NOTE: If you're doing a bolt in style neck joint and you already routed the neck humbucker you'll need AT LEAST 2 bearings on the shank. 

 After a certain point if I'm doing a really deep rout like for the control cavity or something, I'll actually remove the template and just use the wood shape I have routed in previous passes and just use that as the template for the rest of the passes and adjust my bit depth accordingly.

- Bushings & straight cutter bits with no bearings;  

To use a bushing on the router and a regular straight cutter bit, you follow the same procedure as above but you have to use a template that is oversized, meaning each edge is made to accommodate the bushing sleeve that is attached to the router, the result is a slightly larger template on all sides. This only applies to enclosed templates like pickup, neck joint, control cavity routing templates. For body, pickguard and control plate cavity covers, the templates will actually be undersized compared to a normal template used with a template/pattern router bit.

Pictured example: Using a 1/4"(4/16") diameter straight cutter bit with a 5/16" bushing means that the template will be a 32nd larger all the way around to cut the same cavity a regular sized template and a pattern bit would do if it was a deeper rout. This difference is fairly small as you can see in the first picture, but if you use a 1/2" diameter bit with the appropriate 5/8" bushing, the template would then have to be oversized by a 16th the hole way around.

The advantages of using a router bushing and a regular bit, comes when adjusting routing depth, because the bushing is attached to the base of the router (silver part below the yellow bit) it always remains in the same position and same contact with the template, and since it's not a spinning bearing there's no worries about wear to the templates after several uses. The only thing that moves is the straight cutter bit, which can be adjusted for ANY routing depth  your router and straight cutter bit will allow, with no worries of not contacting the template when making shallow routs.

 - How to get the body shape

Once you have your plywood template can be traced onto the body blank. Cut out the body on a band saw or scroll saw about 1/8"(3mm) from the line. 

Next you have 2 options, you can;

 1. Re attach the body template and use a large template bit to trace the outline of the body onto the ruff cut blank, then flip the guitar over and use a flush trim bit to finish it off if you don't have a 2" long template bit.

 - Routing the shape

When using the flush trim bit to finish off the body you again have to watch out for tear out, but the bearing on the bit will leave an impression in the wood (highlighted in blue) if you plush to hard, just one more thing to be careful of.

 - Sanding to the line 

 2. If you're only making one or 2 guitars you can also use a belt sander, preferably a stationary one to sand into the line. But you can make a body template at the same time if sand the body and template at the same time.

 With sanding be sure to always be moving the piece of wood, if you don't you'll end up with flat spots in the shape, especially around sharp turns like the horns, move quickly and switch to a higher grit paper the closer you get to the line.

I have the luxury of a oscillating belt and spindle sander, other hand powered sanding blocks can be made to sand the inside of the horns. For example, wrap some sand paper around a piece of PVC tubing, a bit harder on the hands but you can get the same results if you put the time into it. 

- Two simple uses for guide rails

Sometimes you just need to rout a straight line thru the body or can't be bothered to make a template for one use only, like for a deep set neck tendon cavity that runs the entire length of the top of the guitar. In such a case the rails would be the template the pattern bit would follow to create a long straight line thru the entire top of the guitar body (pictured). Or maybe you need to level down the tendon on a neck thru guitar that had an angled back neck. Rails of uniform thickness can do both these things, and more. Wooden rails can be made with a flat scrap piece of hard wood, run the board thru a thickness planer to ensure uniform thickness, then run them thru the jointer to get your straight edge on either side, finally rim the board up the middle to give you 2 identical boards that are the same thickness and both have one perfectly straight edge. If you don't have the tools to make these boards a set of metal guide rails can be purchased at any local hardware store, usually located with the rest of the metal rulers. As with the templates, they are attached to the top of the guitar with a good double stick tape (black in picture).

Depending on how far apart the rails are to be located you may need to make a new base plate for your router that will span across the gap to be routed, I have made one out of some extra plexi glass I but metal would be preferable. Wooden plates may be to thick to allow for deep enough routing as the thicker the base plate is, the shallower your rout will be, but wood plates are still an option in some cases.

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